Rigid panel construction



Jan. 25, 1966 I c. c. LEACH 3,231,055

RIGID PANEL CONSTRUCTION Filed Jan. 6, 1964 3-'- -1 3 INVENTOR.

i (HAP/.55 6.15409 United States Patent Oflice 3,231,955 Patented Jan.25, 1966 3,231,055 RIGID PANEL CONSTRUCTION Charles C. Leach, St. Louis,Mo., assignor to Glaser Products Corp., St. Louis, Mo., a corporation ofMissouri Filed Jan. 6, 1%4, Ser. No. 335,910 1 Claim. (Cl. 189-46) Theinvention relates to panels equipped with handles such as doors andconsists particularly in improved means for rigidifying a panelfabricated of light gauge sheet metal.

Doors for many types of cabinets are formed by bending a flat sheet oflight gauge metal at right angles to the plane of the sheet to 'formflanges along both sides and ends of the door but disconnected at thecorners. Doors so made are lacking in rigidity in that the panel can bereadily deformed along its diagonals even though the sides and ends arerigidified by their angle formation, since the side and end flanges arenot connected at the corners.

It is accordinglya main object of the invention to provide means forrigidifying doors or similar panels formed of flat sheets of light gaugemetal bent at right angles to their general planes to form flanges alongtheir sides and ends but discontinuous at their corners.

It is a further object to provide structure in which the means forrigidifying such doors or panels is a door handle.

It is an additional object to provide a handle which will function as atorque tube to resist twisting of such sheet metal doors along theirdiagonals.

The foregoing and additional more detailed objects and advantages areachieved by the construction described hereinafter and illustrated inthe accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates the front of a cabinet provided with doors embodyingthe invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view along line 2-2 of FIG.1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view along line 3--3 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view along line 4--4 of FIG.2.

Cabinet 1 is of sheet metal construction and is provided with an opening3 in its front wall 5, the metal of wall 5 being bent inwardly as at 7at right angles to the general plane of wall 5 to form a flange at eachside of opening 3. Opening 3 is closed by a pair of doors 9, 9 of sheetmetal construction consisting of a rectangular rnain plate 11, themargins of which are .bent inwardly at 13, 15, 17 and 19 at right anglesto the general plane of plate 11. The outer vertical flanges of thedoors are connected by piano hinges 21 to the inward flanges 7 of thecabinet front wall. Flanges 13, 15, 17 and 19 are not connected to eachother at their adjacent ends so that, although they help to rigidify thedoor in directions parallel to theirs, the door, in the absence of otherrigidifying means, could be twisted about its diagonals connecting thecorners.

For rigidifying the door, and at the same time providing it with ahandle, I form a handle comprising a seamless tube 23, the ends 25 ofwhich are flattened and bent at right angles to the axis of the tube.Plate 11 of the door is slotted as at 27 along its intersection with topand bottom flanges 17 and 13 sufliciently to permit the insertiontherethrough on a diagonal, i.e., at an angle other than with the planeof plate 11, as best seen in FIG. 2, of the flattened ends 25 of handle23, 25, the inner extremities 29 of which are cut on a correspondingdiagonal for registry with the inner margins of flanges 13 and 17.Flattened end portions 25 are rigidly secured to the inner surfaces offlanges 13 and 17, respectively, at points spaced apart lengthwise ofthe flange, as by screws 31. With this construction, handle 23, 25because of its resistance to torsion prevents skewing of upper and lowerflanges 17 and 13 relative to each other and thus prevents any twistingof plate 11 of the door. It will be evident that the smaller the acuteangle between the inner edges of flattened elements 25 and the plane ofthe door, the greater will be the r-igiditying effect, which will beminimized as this angle approaches 90. An angularity in the order of 45is the optimum whereby the lengths of the flattened end portions 25 ofthe handle can be kept at the minimum consistent with providingsuificient clearance between the plane of the door and the tubularportion of the handle. any attempt to twist the door about its diagonalswill be strongly resisted by the resistance of flattened ends 25 torotation relative to tube 23 and to each other. Because of their methodof securement to the door they provide an uncommonly good handle, thetubular portion of which is smooth and easy to effectively grasp.

The details of the construction may be modified substantially withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention and the exclusive use of suchmodifications as come within the scope of the appended claim iscontemplated.

What is claimed is:

A panel comprising a substantially rectangular plate with flanges formedalong its margins by bending the margins of said plate substantially atright angles to the general plane thereof, and a handle-brace of rigidconstruction comprising a tube extending substantially parallel to theplane of said plate and to two of the margins thereof, with its endportions flattened and bent substantially at right angles to the axis ofsaid tube, said tube being spaced from said plate in a directionopposite from that of said flanges, said end portions intersecting saidplate at an angle other than 90 with the general plane thereof and beingsecured to the inner surfaces of the flanges along the other two marginsof said plate at points spaced apart lengthwise of said flanges, saidplate being slotted along its intersections with said last named flangesto accommodate the passage through said plate of said flattened endportions and their securement against the inner surfaces of saidflanges.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,513,059 6/1950Singer 2038 3,136,574 6/1964 Pasquale 16110 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,257,5202/1961 France.

CHARLES E. OCONNELL, Primary Examiner.

HARRISON R. MOSELEY, Examiner.

K. DOWNEY, Assistant Examiner.

